Conic section of an ellipse question...

Hello bemidjibasser

Quote:

Originally Posted by bemidjibasser

I would appreciate some insight on finding the equation of and ellipse with the x intercepts 3 and -3, y intercepts 4 and -4.
I am at a loss right now...

The general equation of an ellipse with centre the origin and axes lying along the coordinate axes is

$\frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=1$
Putting $y$ and $x$ in turn equal to 0, gives intercepts $(\pm a, 0)$ and $(0, \pm b)$ . So, for the intercepts given here:

$a=3, b = 4$
and the equation is therefore:

$\frac{x^2}{9}+\frac{y^2}{16}=1$

Grandad